Pharmaceutical dosage forms containing opioid analgesics, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and stimulants are subject to abuse in a variety of ways.
With oral solid dosage forms containing these active agents, drug abusers may crush oral solid dosage forms to powders and/or extract the active agents from the dosage forms and then self-administer the extracted active agents by injection, intranasaly or by inhalation (e.g., by snorting). Abusers may also self-administer more than one dose at a time, either orally or by injection. Typically, abusers dissolve the crushed dosage form in from about 2 ml to about 5 ml of a solvent (e.g., water) and then inject the resulting solution, suspension or gel intravenously.
With transdermal dosage forms (e.g., transdermal patches) containing these active agents, abusers may freeze transdermal dosage forms, cut them into pieces and then place one or more pieces inside their oral cavities for intraoral (i.e., buccal) administration. Alternatively, abusers may place a transdermal dosage form in a solvent to extract the active agent and then self-administer the extracted active agent either orally or by injection.
Various attempts have been made to develop abuse-deterrent dosage forms. Despite such attempts, the misuse and abuse of pharmaceutical dosage forms continue to increase.
Thus, there remains a need for new abuse-deterrent pharmaceutical dosage forms and methods for deterring abuse.